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What’s behind your eCommerce search box? You’re not going to like the answer

As an eRetailer, one of the most critical functions on your website is your search box. This is where your shoppers go to find things they want to buy. The truth is that, deep down; you know it just doesn’t work very well. Most eRetailers think that “search” is just “search” and that all search tools are just about the same. They expect that their search has some navigation, basic spell correction, and maybe type-ahead. If that’s all search offers, then what’s the difference, really? Read More

They’re both extinct.

It’s a pretty good analogy, really. If we set the way-back machine to 2007, there was no mCommerce (eCommerce on a mobile device). Why? Because the mobile devices of the day were not designed to be the computer-in-a-pocket devices that we have today. The very best options in those days were slick flip-phones (like the Razr, I still have a red one sitting in a drawer), PDA’s that doubled as phones (like the Palm Treo my boss had) and, of course, the Blackberry.

In the same universe, eCommerce searches, like all searches, were based on keywords. We were all trained to search in terse terms, knowing that the search engine was not intuitive and could not understand the intent or context of the words we use in normal, everyday language. So we searched based on one or two words and then used navigation to drill down to find what we were really looking for.

But technology evolved, as it always does. First came the iPhone, followed closely by the Android. Here was a game changer, we all rapidly abandoned our formerly beloved cell phones to harness the amazing power of a smartphone. By December 2014, 9 out of 10 (88.9%) mobile subscribers aged 25-34 owned a cellphone and 3 out of 4 (75%) of all mobile subscribers over the age of 13 had one. (source: marketingcharts)

I don’t need to tell you how smart your smartphone really is – you already know that. With the advent of voice technology like Siri and GoogleNow, the next big game changer came in the form of smarter search. We now have the ability to speak to our smartphone the way we speak to another person. For example, if I’m in Boston’s famous North End and I want pizza, I can ask for the best pizza in the North End and get a list of shops – with recommendations. How cool is that?

But what about mCommerce? Here’s a world where search is critical. After all, any shopper coming to your site has the potential to become a buyer. If they found what they were looking for on their first search, there’s a better chance of delighting them and converting them into a buyer.

So, if I want to buy a blue dress, I ask for a blue dress, and if I want that dress in a size 6 for less than $100, then I ask for a blue dress in a size six under $100. Here’s the interesting part, most of the technology that is used to search in eCommerce still uses keywords. Those engines will pick apart my query and return things that have nothing to do with what I asked for. I’ll get lots of blue things, and I’ll get underwear and I’ll even get a message telling me that they can’t find any matches (the dreaded no results page) or worse yet, I will get 10,000 items that are all wrong.

But, there are some technologies available today that understand the true context of my question, and will return results that exactly match what I asked for in the first place.

It’s funny because Google, Bing, Yahoo and IBM’s Watson all use this new natural language technology for their searches, but in the eCommerce world, the obsolete keyword search model still pervades the market. Why? Because it is free and it is embedded in the eCommerce platforms and many eRetailers don’t even know that a better way exists.

If you are an eRetailer you must be asking yourself if a natural language search engine would give you a competitive edge, delight your customers and drive your revenue. The answer is, of course!

When your business is relying on returning the right products, the first time, don’t give it to the dinosaur. Because what do dinosaurs and keyword search have in common? They are both extinct.

Innovative and successful Tacoma Screw competes with W.W. Grainger and others in the B2B E-Commerce Player of the Year category

June 4, 2015 – Burlington, MA – EasyAsk Technologies is pleased to congratulate Tacoma Screw Products on its nomination in the B2B E-Commerce Player of the Year Category at the Internet Retailer Conference and Exhibition 2015 show. Also competing in the category, the other nominees were W.W. Grainger, MSC Industrial Supply Co., Environmental Lights Inc., and Newark element14. The 2015 Internet Retailer Excellence Awards recognize the achievements over the past year of the most innovative and successful eCommerce players who are setting the standards for excellence. Read More

Guido Laures, the CTO of Spreadshirt, an e-retailer of print-on-demand apparel and accessories, recently published a revealing article in Internet Retailer on the struggles of e-retailers to convert on their mobile commerce sites and the lost potential revenue as a result. According to Mr. Laures,

“Every year retailers are inundated with studies that herald mobile breakthroughs, but in reality, very few consumers finalize purchases on a smartphone.”

He cites interesting statistics from m-commerce technology provider Branding Brand that tablets and smartphones generated 53% of the visits to 50 retail sites that Branding Brands tracks in January 2015, but only generated 24% of the total web sales, thereby highlighting the conversion problem.

We have seen similar poor conversion rate statistics from the Monetate Ecommerce Quarterly reports. In the 4th quarter of 2014 – the prime holiday season – Monetate found the conversion rate on smartphones was only 1.00% percent which is almost ¼ the rate on traditional desktops.

While mobile-friendly responsive designs and easier mobile checkouts are cited as inhibitors to mobile commerce conversion, an overlooked and more dangerous problem is earlier in the shopping process. Before they can buy, customers first need to find the product they want. Small screen sizes, clumsy typing and awkward scrolling gestures render traditional search and navigation useless on a smartphone.

The era of voice search is upon us. Natural language voice-enabled search allows shoppers to freely say to your mobile site or app what they want, like they were speaking to a sales associate. And in return, the mobile commerce site will show them exactly the products they want. If they find the products faster, customers will convert more often. It is that simple.

Only a natural language search solution can give your mobile commerce site the linguistic capabilities to understand the intent of a shopper’s spoken search and translate that to an exact set of products that matches their needs. A keyword search engine leaves you prone to misunderstanding different words and returning a wide swath of products that will frustrate your shoppers and continue you down the path of poor mobile customer conversion.

Please watch this short video to see a true natural language, voice-enabled search solution in action on a live women’s apparel mobile commerce site.

Can your e-commerce search solution think and understand like a human? If so, your site turns into virtual sales associate, understanding clearly what customers want and closing the sale.

Internet Retailer has published an article, Reading Shoppers Minds, which explores how e-commerce search solutions have become more human-like for e-retail and mobile commerce. The article highlights how EasyAsk customer The North Face makes their site more human like to help their shoppers.

Natural language is an integral part of making your e-commerce site smarter and more human like. Natural language makes your search box more versatile, expanding the vocabulary your site understands and allowing customers to express what they are looking for in their own words.

Natural language is important in everyday e-commerce, and is IMPERATIVE in mobile commerce. In a mobile environment, your customers will use voice to input their searches, expressing their searches, as one industry analyst put it, “using a free flowing stream of consciousness”, such as: I’m looking for a Michael Kors watch in rose gold and I don’t want to pay more than $300.

Highlights

Q3 2014 statistics from the Monetate Ecommerce Quarterly show that customer conversion rates on mobile devices were only 0.80%, much lower than the 2.78% customer conversion rate for on traditional desktop PCs.

EasyAsk Voice Shopper creates a new paradigm for mobile shopping by allowing customers to have a conversation with a mobile commerce site or app, just like speaking with a sales associate.

Having evolved from over 15 years of natural language research and development, the EasyAsk conversational search engine powers the conversation with the customer, combining an understanding of the shopper’s intent with the deep knowledge of retailer’s products and merchandising objectives to deliver the right products

National Retail Federation, The Big Show, New York, NY, USA – January 12, 2015 –EasyAsk (www.easyask.com), the leading provider of e-commerce search solutions for e-retail, mobile commerce and B2B commerce, today announced EasyAsk Voice Shopper, an intuitive, conversational voice search solution for mobile commerce sites and native apps. EasyAsk Voice Shopper enables customers to interact with a mobile commerce site or app using their voice to find the right products quickly and easily for fast, easy customer conversion.

According to Forrester Research, mobile commerce will surpass $293 billion in sales by 2018, comprising 54% of the total U.S. e-commerce, and surpassing desktop web commerce sales. Yet, the Monetate Ecommerce Quarterly from Q3 2014 showed that customer conversion rates on mobile devices were only 0.80%, much lower than the 2.78% customer conversion rate for on traditional desktop PCs. The limited screen real estate and clumsy thumbpads make it hard for shoppers to interact with mobile commerce sites or apps to find the products they want, hindering customer conversion.

EasyAsk Voice Shopper creates a new paradigm for mobile shopping by allowing customers to have a conversation with a mobile commerce site or app, just like speaking with a sales associate. Having evolved from over 15 years of natural language research and development, the EasyAsk conversational search engine powers the conversation with the customer, combining an understanding of the shopper’s intent with the deep knowledge of retailer’s products and merchandising objectives to deliver the right products.

The EasyAsk Voice Shopper allows customers to ask for products or services using any style – explicit names, categories or sub-categories, virtual categories or product concepts, long-tail searches, and full sentences. The request can have terms or attributes in any order, allowing the customer to freely speak their search in their own words.

Voice refinements which allow a customer to narrow search results with their voice rather than using a touchscreen menu,

The ability to interrogate search results and offer ways to provide better results such as cases where there are no results or few results,

Customized, conversational responses for interactive feedback to the customer and the ability to offer additional product or search options.

A video demonstration of EasyAsk Voice Shopper can be viewed at http://easyask.com/products/mobile/.

EasyAsk Voice Shopper is part of the EasyAsk E-Commerce Search and Merchandising product family, which delivers a harmonious omni-channel (mobile, web, and in-store) customer experience which is optimized for different devices (mobile, tablet and desktop).

“Traditional shopping methods such as navigation or keyword search simply will not be tolerated by consumers on mobile devices, impeding conversion and m-commerce sales,” said Craig Bassin, EasyAsk CEO. “EasyAsk Voice Shopper delivers a new paradigm for mobile shopping by engaging customers in a conversation and helping them find products faster and easier. Retailers will need an interactive voice mobile customer experience such as this to effectively compete in the new mobile commerce world.”

Voice has now become the interaction method of choice on mobile devices. Major mobile and e-commerce leaders such as Apple, Google, Microsoft and Amazon are making voice the centerpiece of the mobile user experience. According to the October, 2014 Google Mobile Voice Study, 85% of adults and 89% of teens now believe voice search to be the future for mobile.

EasyAsk Voice Shopper works on both tablets and mobile smartphones. It supports mobile commerce sites on any mobile device, and mobile commerce apps on iOS and Android devices. EasyAsk Voice Shopper works with built in voice translation services on mobile devices.

Existing EasyAsk customers can extend their existing search services to use the Voice Shopper with no additional effort. Leading e-retailers such as True Value Hardware, The North Face, JJill, Lamps Plus, Anna’s Linens, Boscov’s, Travers Tool, Journey’s and AlphaBroder have mobile optimized m-commerce sites powered by EasyAsk that support voice search today.

About EasyAsk

EasyAsk is the leading provider of e-commerce site search, navigation and merchandising solutions for e-retail, mobile commerce and B2B commerce. EasyAsk products go far beyond traditional site search, allowing customers to ask for products like interacting with a sales associate and getting exactly what they want. EasyAsk Voice Shopper enables e-retailers to support voice shopping, allowing visitors to converse with a mobile commerce site or app by speaking to their mobile device. Customers that use the EasyAsk software see a tremendous boost in online revenue through increased conversion rates, improved customer experience and agile merchandising. Based in Burlington, Massachusetts, with offices in Europe, the EasyAsk solutions are used by leading e-retailers and e-commerce sites such as The North Face, Anna’s Linens, Journey’s, Aramark, JJill, True Value, Andertons Music and Sonic Sense. For further information please visit www.easyask.com.

Outdoor gear and apparel retailer The North Face continues to see strong results from its use of natural language and voice-enabled search, helping its sites across mobile and desktop in several European counties to deliver a 35 percent increase in search conversion rate and 24 percent increase in revenue from search.

As mobile use continues to grow, consumers are increasingly looking for streamlined on-site search experiences from their smartphone, which natural language and voice capabilities can provide. The North Face introduced the enhanced search capabilities on its sites in the United States and Canada in late 2012 and to the European sites in the summer of 2013.

Study finds many of the top 50 U.S. e-commerce sites lacking in essential search capabilities causing customer abandonment and lost sales.

Burlington, MA – November 12, 2014 – A recent study by the Baymard Institute (www.baymard.com), an independent web research institute with a focus on e-commerce usability and optimization, found that many of the top 50 U.S. e-commerce sites are lacking essential e-commerce search capabilities which is hindering current online sales. In response, EasyAsk (www.easyask.com), the leading provider of e-commerce search solutions for e-retail, mobile commerce and B2B commerce, has released a white paper detailing how e-commerce organizations can improve their site search with unique features to boost their e-commerce sales and prepare for the mobile commerce wave.

The Baymard Institute performed a usability study on user search behavior and benchmarked the top 50 grossing U.S. e-commerce sites based on 60 different usability guidelines. The report released by the Baymard Institute, E-Commerce Search Usability, explained these guidelines and showed the results of the benchmark tests on the leading U.S. e-commerce sites.

“When e-commerce search works, it’s fast, convenient and efficient. It’s no wonder that so many users prefer searching over clicking categories. Unfortunately, our recent large-scale usability study and top-50 benchmark of e-commerce search finds that search often does not work very well,” said Christian Holst, Baymard Institute co-founder.

The Baymard Institute study found major issues in e-commerce search usability at the top 50 U.S. e-commerce sites. Part of the study focused on the type of searches often performed by visitors, classifying different searches into 12 groups. When benchmarking the leading U.S. e-commerce sites, the study found generally poor test results for variety of search capabilities, including the following:

64% of sites did not adequately support product type searches and required the user to use the exact site jargon for products, product types or categories,

60% of sites didn’t support provide support for thematic searches such as “spring jacket” or “living room rug,”

Only 46% of sites fully supported searches using product features such as color or other product characteristics,

34% of sites had no tolerance for incorrect spelling, producing poor or no results when a visitor misspelled even a single character in a search term.

The EasyAsk white paper, Improving E-Commerce Search to Meet the Needs of the Modern Shopper, identifies specific solutions for the problems identified in the Baymard Institute Study. The white paper also shows examples of how EasyAsk customers such as The North Face, Oya Costumes, InkJet Superstore, and Travers Tools have delivered an engaging search experience as identified in the Baymard Institute report.

EasyAsk and the Baymard Institute are also allowing e-commerce organizations to freely download an excerpt from the Baymard Institute report, Deconstructing E-commerce Search – The 12 Search Query Types. This document examines the 12 different types of searches most often used and how visitors expect these searches to work on an e-commerce site. The Baymard report, Deconstructing E-commerce Search – The 12 Search Query Types, and the EasyAsk white paper, Improving E-Commerce Search to Meet the Needs of the Modern Shopper, can be found at www.easyask.com/search-usability.

About the Baymard Institute

Baymard is an independent web research institute with a main focus on e-commerce usability and optimization. The institute was founded by Christian Holst and Jamie Appleseed in 2009 and is located in Copenhagen, Denmark. The organization provides User Experience articles, comprehensive research reports and design guidelines, and labs and resources for e-commerce usability testing.

About EasyAsk

EasyAsk is the leading provider of e-commerce site search, navigation and merchandising solutions for e-retail, mobile commerce and B2B commerce. EasyAsk products go far beyond traditional site search, delivering unprecedented accuracy and precision to deliver the right products on the first page every time. EasyAsk voice mobile search enables e-retailers to deliver voice commerce sites, allowing visitors to search and navigate by speaking to their mobile device. Customers that use the EasyAsk software see a tremendous boost in online revenue through increased conversion rates, improved customer experience and agile merchandising. Based in Burlington, Massachusetts, with offices in Europe, the EasyAsk solutions are used by leading e-retailers and e-commerce sites such as The North Face, Samsonite, Anna’s Linens, Journey’s, Aramark, JJill, True Value, Andertons Music and Sonic Sense. For further information please visit www.easyask.com.

A recent study by the Baymard Institute, an independent web research institute with a focus on e-commerce usability and optimization, found that many of the top 50 U.S. e-commerce sites are lacking essential e-commerce search capabilities which is hindering current online sales. EasyAsk, the leader in e-commerce and mobile search, is making freely available two unique reports:

This article in Mobile Commerce Daily examines the new release of Amazon’s iPhone mobile app, and its new feature: Voice Search. In the article, EasyAsk’s John Morrell comments on the user experience with the Amazon Voice Search.